From this month's News + Notes, the comprehensive list of PPE.
From Open Up by Hayden Alfano :
This month's cover story focuses on open-book management. This is a frightening proposition for a lot of remodelers, who worry about sharing their deepest, darkest secrets: their numbers. If the story convinced you that it's worth a try, but you're unsure how to go about opening your books to your employees, here are some examples. (Company names and client names have been changed or omitted to preserve anonymity.)
It's up to you how much you choose to reveal to your employees. You can show them a stripped-down version of your P&L with expenses collapsed into just a handful of line items, or you can show them the full, detailed version.
Here's an example of a job cost report, informing employees how current projects are performing vs. budget. Here's another.
This work-in-progress (WIP) report is a more advanced step in understanding the financial side of the remodeling business.
Some companies go even further. Here's part of a slideshow that's part of one company's open-book meetings (click each slide to see the next one). And here are some charts another company distributes at theirs.
From Back on Track, by Leah Thayer:
This is the second of three articles about the next-generation remodeling workforce.
For remodelers who want to help short-circuit the looming skilled labor shortage, this is one place to begin. This Web-only article -- a greatly expanded version of the article that appears in the print edition of the February REMODELING -- lists more than 40 steps you can start taking today, with links to many organizations and programs that can point you in the right direction.
The article is organized into four general categories: Education, Training, Recruitment, and Culture/Retention.
In K+B Design Clinic, see additional images and content for Serenity Now.
Remodeling Benchmark: Download revenue spreadsheet
This month's Reader Panel survey, a continuation of our June 2007 survey Balancing Act, looks at the steps remodelers are taking to prepare thorough bids and -- perhaps more importantly -- the process by which they follow up on lost bids.